Home Page

Stacy council approves CUP for Lent at special meeting

By Barbara Brown
The Stacy City Council decided to approve a conditional use permit request from Lent Township to set aside land on which the two towns are trying to build a new fire station.

The city council held a special meeting Jan. 22 that started in the crammed City Hall meeting room and was recessed to the fire hall because so many people showed up.

The permit was approved with the condition that it only go into effect when a joint powers agreement on construction and operation of the fire hall is signed.

A joint powers agreement must be signed by Feb. 8 for everything to be legitimate, according to the motion.

The conditional use permit would become unnecessary when the joint power agreement is reached because Stacy and Lent would be joint owners and operators of the property.

Also, if an agreement is not signed Feb. 8, the conditional use permit becomes null and void because obligations of the approval would not be met.

Mayor Kathi Lawrence did not want to grant the permit because she feared Stacy would attract undesirable construction.

ìWe canít (approve the permit) because we would be setting precedent for any other entity to come in and ask for a CUP,î she said during the meeting.

Lawrence also argued against the CUP, citing the cityís understood policy that ìspot zoningî would not be allowed.
The land on which the fire hall is planned to be built is zoned residential. Zoning would have to be amended to allow the firehall construction.

The conditional use permit would allow Lent to apply for building permits which are necessary to bid out the project.
Lent supervisor Lyle Johnson told the council Jan. 22 that if requests for bids did not go out by the end of this week, the project would have to be put off another year and could cost an additional $500,000.

There is no solid figure for the cost of building the fire station.

At a previous joint powers meeting between Stacy and Lent Township, a representative of Ehlers and Associates told the councils that they needed to decided on to finance the construction.

The towns can either decide to take the issue to referendum or can simply decide to finance it through council decision.
However, a catch in the plan is that the councils could choose different options.

If one group took the issue to referendum, and not the other, and that vote failed, the councils could be back to square one.

Also at the Jan. 22 special meeting:
After several weeks of discussion over who should be appointed to fill the temporary vacancy left by Council member Connie Donahue while she vacations, the council still could not agree last week on who should serve.

The council received four letters of interest and after two failed nomination votes, Lawrence appointed Greg Kaslow.
Kaslow is a former Wyoming commissioner. He was elected in 1986 and served nearly three terms after being re-elected in 1990 and 1996.

Kaslow resigned his Wyoming position in 1997 when he moved to Stacy.
He will be sworn in to office at the councilís Feb. 12 meeting.

Top of Page

©ECM Post Review

6448 Main Street
North Branch, MN 55056
Telephone: 651-674-7025
Fax: 651-674-7026
E-mail: editor.postreview@ecm-inc.com